I used a three step starter (in my 2L flask) for the batch with 10+ month old White Labs vials (two WLP099 vials for a big English BarleyWine). Decanted the spent starter wort, made it into a slurry and pitched it in. Even if it wasn't at the amount calculated, it took off so bloody fast it was great. Used the blow-off hose for the first 5 days (or so) then was able to change over to the airlock. Fermented for close to two months that way (lower temperatures and a 15.3% ABV target). I'm letting it settle before I transfer to aging keg. Sometime in the next week, or three, I'll transfer it over and put some oak in there.

Sounds very interesting.

I'm getting ready to do a maibock (lager, around 1.070 OG) using some WLP833 German Bock yeast that I rinsed in mid-November. Since it's a couple months old, I started it in a half liter of low-gravity wort (around 1.020) and then added about 2.5 L of 1.040 after a day. After a couple more days, I'm going to crash it for about 2 days, then decant and split it into two 1-gallon jugs and add about 2.5 L of wort to each of those.

Based on yeastcalc's calculator, this should give something in the range of 550-650 billion cells for a starting cell count ranging at least from 10 to 30 billion cells, so I should have a pretty good error margin. I followed a similar process for a Bock that's going now, except I skipped the first stage and used two of my jars of yeast, one in each of the gallon jugs. I don't know exactly what the count was on the Bock, but it had a very quick start for a lager, even pitching at 45°F and fermenting at 48°F for the first few days. It was showing signs of Krausen in < 12 hours.

I was a little worried about starting with a single vial, after an additional month and a half of storage, but it really sprang to life in the first stage and the second stage is just as vigorous as I remember for the last batch. So all the signs are good...

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWAL

Yeah Ok I F'ed up, I was trying to find the same info as well as be late for work at the same time.... (A little rushed)

No worries. Fencepost / off-by-one errors are part of a truly grand tradition. (And, FWIW, the reason I formatted my post like I did was because it was the only way I could be sure I was counting correctly.....)